It was a case of third time lucky when Western Cape paddler Neriyah Dill won the gruelling Berg River Canoe Marathon last month.
With her unusual first name of Hebrew origin referencing a lamp, there’ s no doubt she’ s been lighting the way for women’ s paddling in recent years.
Dill started paddling at the age of 12 and now, at just 20, has already made waves on the water around the country, having won the Victrix Ludorum at the SA Sprint Championships aged 16 and the under-23 women’ s K2 Dusi Canoe Marathon title( an event first held back in 1951) with KwaZulu-Natal’ s Amy Hullett in 2024.
Looking ahead, her Berg triumph may eventually take a back seat to the English translation of the word – mountain – as she sets her sights on a future in more than one sport.
Born in Hermanus and raised in nearby Stanford, Dill’ s sporting journey started with karate at the age of four [ she reached red belt-level ].
“ I think that brought out the love of fitness and competition for me at a very young age,” she says from her new base in Cape Town.
“ My brothers and I watched a YouTube video of Dusi and 18 months later they paddled it together, with me seconding them, with tons of envy.
“ I did it for the first time the next year( 2023) but the Berg was never really on my to-do list because it’ s a day longer( four rather than three, and double the distance – 240km compared to 120km) and was more about gruelling endurance rather than adrenaline.
“ Since my brother did Dusi before me, I made it my mission to finish Berg before him and that was two years ago. I started with very little selfbelief but still ended up second lady, and that really sparked my competitive side.”
Last year she finished third and tackled this year’ s Berg with ambitions of making the top step of the podium.
Dill says a race like Berg( established in 1962 and raced from Paarl to just before the Atlantic Ocean on the West Coast) teaches competitors so much about themselves during the four days but“ all the early-morning starts and suffering on long, never-ending days always bring people together”.
Having experienced success at both Dusi and Berg she definitely leans towards the former.“ It’ s much shorter, more exhilarating, you have to constantly read the river and it’ s just fun, so I’ d love to do it many more times, of course depending on the purity of the water after many recent problems with pollution.”
She’ s not ruling out more Bergs though, but“ if one goes back to the Berg you have to have a very defined goal in mind, it’ s not just for fun”.
Recently relocated to the Cape Town canoe mecca of Lakeside, Dill trains with the Orca squad at Peninsula Canoe Club, where there’ s the luxury of four coaches in Ian Black, Kenny Rice, Jonny Lucas and Alex Cole( four-time Berg winner).“ They all have different roles and it was a huge change from Stanford where I only had squad training around four times a week and often did my weekend long paddles on my own.
“ Now we have a regular squad of between 10-15 paddlers during winter and up to 20-25 in summer.”
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Speaking about her sporting journey after the river and looking towards the mountains, her face lights up.
“ I do really love trail running … it’ s just amazing and adventurous, similar to river racing as you have to read a trail like you read a river … so I’ m looking forward to ultra-trail running.
“ And then I also love mountain-biking. I definitely want to do Cape Epic one day and basically any MTB race in SA … the technical ones look very fun, but I think for endurance events, which suit me, maybe gravel racing one day. Life is just too short to do one race!”
As in so many SA sports, funding is vital and as it stands Grootbos Nature Reserve near Gansbaai, where Dill did a conservation internship recently, is her only funder.“ They sponsor my main events through the year and I get a monthly amount from them. I currently do online conservation work and am so keen on continuing to work in the conservation field.”
Life has a strange way of coming full circle, and when it comes to life away from the river or the mountain there’ s a common name.
“ I have lots of hobbies, especially outdoors, like hiking and running etc but I also love reading self-improvement books about how to teach the brain and body to function better.”
In this regard, one of Dill’ s main inspirational“ gurus” is Eileen Gu, the most decorated freestyle skier in Olympic history with three gold and three silver medals.
“ She’ s also a top model and has majored in international relations – amazing how she can do at least three things and excel at all.”
There’ s an intriguing connection – the Stanford-raised canoe ace’ s role model, Gu, was largely educated at Stanford University in the United States.
She’ s already excelled at canoeing … but don’ t bet against Dill going on to do the same on terra firma, whether on foot or in the saddle.
It was all plain sailing until after day three when Dill picked up a debilitating E. coli bug which kept her up the entire night.
“ I pushed through the 56km stage with little hope that I’ d see the Velddrif bridge at the finish, but I was blessed to be able to finish and take home the gold.” www. modernathlete. co. za 27